certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the second circuit

No. 00860. Argued October 1, 2001Decided November 27, 2001

Petitioner Correctional Services Corporation (CSC), under contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), operates Le Marquis Community Correctional Center (Le Marquis), a facility that houses federal inmates. After respondent, a federal inmate afflicted with a heart condition limiting his ability to climb stairs, was assigned to a bedroom on Le Marquis fifth floor, CSC instituted a policy requiring inmates residing below the sixth floor to use the stairs rather than the elevator. Respondent was exempted from this policy. But when a CSC employee forbade respondent to use the elevator to reach his bedroom, he climbed the stairs, suffered a heart attack, and fell. Subsequently, respondent filed this damages action against CSC and individual defendants, alleging,
inter alia
, that they were negligent in refusing him the use of the elevator. The District Court treated the complaint as raising claims under
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents,
403 U. S. 388, in which this Court recognized for the first time an implied private action for damages against federal officers alleged to have violated a citizens constitutional rights. In dismissing the suit, the District Court relied on
FDIC
v.
Meyer,
510 U. S. 471, reasoning,
inter alia,
that a
Bivens
action may only be maintained against an individual, not a corporate entity. The Second Circuit reversed in pertinent part and remanded, remarking, with respect to CSC, that
Meyer
expressly declined to expand the category of defendants against whom
Bivens
-type actions may be brought to include not only federal agents, but also federal agencies. But the court reasoned that such private entities should be held liable under
Bivens
to accomplish the important
Bivens
goal of providing a remedy for constitutional violations.

Held:
Bivens
limited holding may not be extended to confer a right of action for damages against private entities acting under color of federal law. The Courts authority to imply a new constitutional tort, not expressly authorized by statute, is anchored in its general jurisdiction to decide all cases arising under federal law. The Court first exercised this authority in
Bivens.
From a discussion of that and subsequent cases, it is clear that respondents claim is fundamentally different from anything the Court has heretofore recognized. In 30 years of
Bivens
jurisprudence, the Court has extended its holding only twice, to provide an otherwise nonexistent cause of action against
individual officers
alleged to have acted unconstitutionally,
e.g.,
Carlson
v.
Green,
446 U. S. 14, and to provide a cause of action for a plaintiff who lacked
any alternative remedy
for harms caused by an individual officers unconstitutional conduct,
e.g.,
Davis
v.
Passman,
442 U. S. 228. Where such circumstances are not present, the Court has consistently rejected invitations to extend
Bivens
, often for reasons that foreclose its extension here. See,
e.g.,
Bush
v.
Lucas,
462 U. S. 367.
Bivens
purpose is to deter individual federal officers, not the agency, from committing constitutional violations.
Meyer
made clear,
inter alia,
that the threat of suit against an individuals employer was not the kind of deterrence contemplated by
Bivens.
510 U. S., at 485. This case is, in every meaningful sense, the same. For if a corporate defendant is available for suit, claimants will focus their collection efforts on it, and not the individual directly responsible for the alleged injury. On
Meyer
s logic, inferring a constitutional tort remedy against a private entity like CSC is therefore foreclosed. Respondents claim that requiring private corporations acting under color of federal law to pay for the constitutional harms they commit is the best way to discourage future harms has no relevance to
Bivens
, which is concerned solely with deterring individual officers unconstitutional acts. There is no reason here to consider extending
Bivens
beyond its core premise. To begin with,
no federal
prisoners
enjoy respondents contemplated remedy. If such a prisoner in a BOP facility alleges a constitutional deprivation, his only remedy lies against the offending individual officer. Whether it makes sense to impose asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities alone is a question for Congress to decide. Nor is this a situation in which claimants in respondents shoes lack effective remedies. It was conceded at oral argument that alternative remedies are at least as great, and in many respects greater, than anything that could be had under
Bivens
. For example, federal prisoners in private facilities enjoy a parallel tort remedy that is unavailable to prisoners housed in government facilities. Inmates in respondents position also have full access to remedial mechanisms established by the BOP, including suits in federal court for injunctive relieflong recognized as the proper means for preventing entities from acting unconstitutionallyand grievances filed through the BOPs Administrative Remedy Program. Pp. 412.

229 F. 3d 374, reversed.

Rehnquist, C. J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court, in which
OConnor, Scalia, Kennedy,
and
Thomas, JJ.,
joined.
Scalia, J.,
filed a concurring opinion, in which
Thomas, J.,
joined.
Stevens, J.,
filed a dissenting opinion, in which
Souter, Ginsburg,
and
Breyer, JJ.,
joined.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

[November 27, 2001]

Justice Scalia
, with whom
Justice Thomas
joins, concurring.

I join the opinion of the Court because I agree that a narrow interpretation of the rationale of
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, would not logically produce its application to the circumstances of this case. The dissent is doubtless correct that a broad interpretation of its rationale
would
logically produce such application, but I am not inclined (and the Court has not been inclined) to construe
Bivens
broadly.

In joining the Courts opinion, however, I do not mean to imply that,
if
the narrowest rationale of
Bivens
did
apply to a new context, I
would
extend its holding. I would not.
Bivens
is a relic of the heady days in which this Court assumed common-law powers to create causes of actiondecreeing them to be implied by the mere existence of a statutory or constitutional prohibition. As the Court points out,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, we have abandoned that power to invent implications in the statutory field, see
Alexander
v.
Sandoval
,
532 U. S. 275,
287 (2001)
. There is even greater reason to abandon it in the constitutional field, since an implication imagined in the Constitution can presumably not even be repudiated by Congress. I would limit
Bivens
and its two follow-on cases (
Davis
v.
Passman
,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, and
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
) to the precise circumstances that they involved.

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).

on writ of certiorari to the united states court of
appeals for the second circuit

In
Bivens
v.
Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents
,
403 U. S. 388 (1971)
, the Court affirmatively answered the question that it had reserved in
Bell
v.
Hood
,
327 U. S. 678 (1946)
: whether a violation of the
Fourth Amendment by
a federal agent
acting under color of his authority gives rise to a cause of action for damages consequent upon his unconstitutional conduct. 403 U. S., at 389 (emphasis added). Nearly a decade later, in
Carlson
v.
Green
,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, we held that a violation of the
Eighth Amendment by federal prison officials gave rise to a
Bivens
remedy despite the fact that the plaintiffs also had a remedy against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). We stated: 
Bivens
established that the victims of a constitutional violation by
a federal agent
have a right to recover damages against the official in federal court despite the absence of any statute conferring such a right. 446 U. S
.
, at 18 (emphasis added).

In subsequent cases, we have decided that a
Bivens
remedy is not available for every conceivable constitutional violation.
1
We have never, however, qualified our holding that
Eighth Amendment violations are actionable under
Bivens
. See
Farmer
v.
Brennan
,
511 U. S. 825 (1994)
;
McCarthy
v.
Madigan
,
503 U. S. 140 (1992)
. Nor have we ever suggested that a category of federal agents can commit
Eighth Amendment violations with impunity.

The parties before us have assumed that respondents complaint has alleged a violation of the
Eighth Amendment.
2
The violation was committed by a federal agenta private corporation employed by the Bureau of Prisons to perform functions that would otherwise be performed by individual employees of the Federal Government. Thus, the question presented by this case is whether the Court should create an exception to the straightforward application of
Bivens
and
Carlson
, not whether it should extend our cases beyond their core premise,
ante
, at 9. This point is evident from the fact that prior to our recent decision in
FDIC
v.
Meyer
,
510 U. S. 471 (1994)
, the Courts of Appeals had consistently and correctly held that corporate agents performing federal functions, like human agents doing so, were proper defendants in
Bivens
actions.
3

Meyer
, which concluded that federal agencies are not suable under
Bivens
, does not lead to the outcome reached by the Court today. In that case, we did not discuss private corporate agents, nor suggest that such agents should be viewed differently from human ones. Rather, in
Meyer
, we drew a distinction between federal agents and an agency of the Federal Government, 510 U. S
.
,
at 473. Indeed, our repeated references to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporations (FDIC) status as a federal agency emphasized the FDICs affinity to the federal sovereign. We expressed concern that damages sought directly from federal agencies, such as the FDIC, would creat[e] a potentially enormous financial burden for the Federal Government.
Id.
, at 486. And it must be kept in mind that
Meyer
involved the FDICs waiver of sovereign immunity, which, had the Court in
Meyer
recognized a cause of action, would have permitted the very sort of lawsuit that
Bivens
presumed impossible: a direct action against the Government. 510 U. S., at 485.
4

Moreover, in
Meyer
, as in
Bush
v.
Lucas
,
462 U. S. 367 (1983)
, and
Schweiker
v.
Chilicky
,
487 U. S. 412 (1988)
, we were not dealing with a well-recognized cause of action. The cause of action alleged in
Meyer
was a violation of procedural due process, and as the
Meyer
Court noted, a
Bivens
action alleging a violation of the Due Process Clause of the
Fifth Amendment may be appropriate in some contexts, but not in others. 510 U. S., at 484, n. 9. Not only is substantive liability assumed in the present case, but respondents
Eighth Amendment claim falls in the heartland of substantive
Bivens
claims.
5

Because
Meyer
does not dispose of this case, the Court claims that the rationales underlying
Bivens
namely, lack of alternative remedies and deterrenceare not present in cases in which suit is brought against a private corporation serving as a federal agent. However, common sense, buttressed by all of the reasons that supported the holding in
Bivens
, leads to the conclusion that corporate agents should not be treated more favorably than human agents.

First, the Court argues that respondent enjoys alternative remedies against the corporate agent that distinguish this case from
Bivens
. In doing so, the Court characterizes
Bivens
and its progeny as cases in which plaintiffs lacked 
any alternative remedy
,
ante
, at 8. In
Bivens
, however, even though the plaintiffs suit against the Federal Government under state tort law may have been barred by sovereign immunity, a suit against the officer himself under state tort law was theoretically possible. Moreover, as the Court recognized in
Carlson
,
Bivens
plaintiffs also have remedies available under the FTCA. Thus, the Court is incorrect to portray
Bivens
plaintiffs as lacking any other avenue of relief, and to imply as a result that respondent in this case had a substantially wider array of non-
Bivens
remedies at his disposal than do other
Bivens
plaintiffs.
6
If alternative remedies provide a sufficient justification for closing the federal forum here, where the defendant is a private corporation, the claims against the individual defendants in
Carlson
, in light of the FTCA alternative, should have been rejected as well.
7

It is ironic that the Court relies so heavily for its holding on this assumption that alternative effective remediesprimarily negligence actions in state courtare available to respondent. See
ante
,
at 1012. Like Justice Harlan, I think it entirely proper that these injuries be compensable according to uniform rules of federal law, especially in light of the very large element of federal law which must in any event control the scope of official defenses to liability.
Bivens
, 403 U. S., at 409 (opinion concurring in judgment). And aside from undermining uniformity, the Courts reliance on state tort law will jeopardize the protection of the full scope of federal constitutional rights. State law might have comparable causes of action for tort claims like the
Eighth Amendment violation alleged here, see
ante
, at 1011, but other unconstitutional actions by prison employees, such as violations of the Equal Protection or Due Process Clauses, may find no parallel causes of action in state tort law. Even though respondent here may have been able to sue for some degree of relief under state law because his
Eighth Amendment claim could have been pleaded as negligence, future plaintiffs with constitutional claims less like traditional torts will not necessarily be so situated.
8

Second, the Court claims that the deterrence goals of
Bivens
would not be served by permitting liability here.
Ante
, at 89 (citing
Meyer
). It cannot be seriously maintained, however, that tort remedies against corporate employers have less deterrent value than actions against their employees. As the Court has previously noted, the organizational structure of private prisons is one subject to the ordinary competitive pressures that normally help private firms adjust their behavior in response to the incentives that tort suits providepressures not necessarily present in government departments.
Richardson
v.
McKnight
,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
. Thus, the private corporate entity at issue here is readily distinguishable from the federal agency in
Meyer
. Indeed, a tragic consequence of todays decision is the clear incentive it gives to corporate managers of privately operated custodial institutions to adopt cost-saving policies that jeopardize the constitutional rights of the tens of thousands of inmates in their custody.
9

The Court raises a concern with imposing asymmetrical liability costs on private prison facilities,
ante
, at 10, and further claims that because federal prisoners in Government-run institutions can only sue officers, it would be unfair to permit federal prisoners in private institutions to sue an officers employer,
ibid
. Permitting liability in the present case, however, would
produce
symmetry: both private and public prisoners would be unable to sue the principal (
i.e.,
the Government), but would be able to sue the primary federal agent (
i.e.,
the government official or the corporation). Indeed, it is the
Courts
decision that creates asymmetrybetween federal and state
prisoners housed in private correctional facilities. Under
42 U. S. C. §1983, a state prisoner may sue a private prison for deprivation of constitutional rights, see
Lugar
v.
Edmondson Oil Co.
,
457 U. S. 922,
936937 (1982)
(permitting suit under §1983 against private corporations exercising state action), yet the Court denies such a remedy to that prisoners federal counterpart. It is true that we have never expressly held that the contours of
Bivens
and §1983 are identical. The Court, however, has recognized sound jurisprudential reasons for parallelism, as different standards for claims against state and federal actors would be incongruous and confusing.
Butz
v.
Economou
,
438 U. S. 478,
499 (1978)
(internal quotation marks omitted); cf.
Bolling
v.
Sharpe
,
347 U. S. 497,
500 (1954)
(In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government). The value of such parallelism was in fact furthered by
Meyer
, since §1983 would not have provided the plaintiff a remedy had he pressed a similar claim against a state agency.

It is apparent from the Courts critical discussion of the thoughtful opinions of Justice Harlan and his contemporaries,
ante
, at 5, and n. 3, and from its erroneous statement of the question presented by this case as whether
Bivens
should be extended to allow recovery against a private corporation employed as a federal agent,
ante
, at 1, that the driving force behind the Courts decision is a disagreement with the holding in
Bivens
itself.
10
There are at least two reasons why it is improper for the Court to allow its decision in this case to be influenced by that predisposition. First, as is clear from the legislative materials cited in
Carlson
, 446 U. S., at 1920, see also
ante
, at 6, Congress has effectively ratified the
Bivens
remedy; surely Congress has never sought to abolish it. Second, a rule that has been such a well-recognized part of our law for over 30 years should be accorded full respect by the Members of this Court, whether or not they would have endorsed that rule when it was first announced. For our primary duty is to apply and enforce settled law, not to revise that law to accord with our own notions of sound policy.

I respectfully dissent.

Notes

2
Although it might have challenged the sufficiency of respondents constitutional claim, see ante, at 1011, petitioner has not done so. See Tr. of Oral Arg. 55 (acknowledgment by petitioner that the complaint states an
Eighth Amendment violation). Its petition for certiorari presented the single question whether a Bivens cause of action for damages should be implied against a private corporation acting under color of federal law. Pet. for Cert. (i).

4
Meyer also did not address the present situation because the Court understood the plaintiffs real complaint in that case to be that the individual officers would be shielded by qualified immunity, 510 U. S., at 485, a concern not present in the case before us, see Richardson v. McKnight,
521 U. S. 399,
412 (1997)
(denying qualified immunity to private prison guards in a suit under
42 U. S. C. §1983).

5
The Court incorrectly assumes that we are being asked to imply a new constitutional tort, ante, at 4. The tort here is, however, well established; the only question is whether a remedy in damages is available against a limited class of tortfeasors.

6
The Court recognizes that the question whether a Bivens action would lie against the individual employees of a private corporation like Correctional Services Corporation (CSC) is not raised in the present case. Ante, at 3. Both petitioner and respondent have assumed Bivens would apply to these individuals, and the United States as amicus maintains that such liability would be appropriate under Bivens. It does seem puzzling that Bivens liability would attach to the private individual employees of such corporationssubagents of the Federal Governmentbut not to the corporate agents themselves. However, the United States explicitly maintains this to be the case, and the reasoning of the Courts opinion relies, at least in part, on the availability of a remedy against employees of private prisons. Cf. ante, at 10 (noting that Meyer found sufficient a remedy against the individual officer, which respondent did not timely pursue (emphasis added)).

7
Although the Court lightly references administrative remedies that might be available to CSC-housed inmates, these are by no means the sort of comprehensive administrative remedies previously contemplated by the Court in Bush and Schweiker.

8
The Court blames respondent, who filed his initial complaint pro se, for the lack of state remedies in this case; according to the Court, respondents failure to bring a negligence suit in state court was due solely to strategic choice, ante, at 11. Such strategic behavior, generally speaking, is imaginable, but there is no basis in the case before us to charge respondent with acting strategically. Cf. ibid. (discussing how proving a federal constitutional claim would be considerably more difficult than proving a state negligence claim). Respondent filed his complaint in federal court because he believed himself to have been severely maltreated while in federal custody, and he had no legal counsel to advise him to do otherwise. Without the aid of counsel, respondent not only failed to file for state relief, but he also failed to name the particular prison guard who was responsible for his injuries, resulting in the eventual dismissal of the claims against the individual officers as time barred. Respondent may have been an unsophisticated plaintiff, or, at worst, not entirely diligent about determining the identify of the guards, but it can hardly be said that strategic choice was the driving force behind respondents litigation behavior.

9
As amici for respondent explain, private prisons are exempt from much of the oversight and public accountability faced by the Bureau of Prisons, a federal entity. See, e.g., Brief for Legal Aid Society of New York as Amicus Curiae 825. Indeed, because a private prison corporations first loyalty is to its stockholders, rather than the public interest, it is no surprise that cost-cutting measures jeopardizing prisoners rights are more likely in private facilities than in public ones.

10
See also ante, at 1 (Scalia, J., concurring) (arguing that Bivens is a relic of . . . heady days and should be limited, along with Carlson v. Green,
446 U. S. 14 (1980)
, and Davis v. Passman,
442 U. S. 228 (1979)
, to its facts). Such hostility to the core of Bivens is not new. See, e.g., Carlson, 446 U. S., at 32 (Rehnquist, J., dissenting) ([T]o dispose of this case as if Bivens were rightly decided would in the words of Mr. Justice Frankfurter be to start with an unreality ). Nor is there anything new in the Courts disregard for precedent concerning well-established causes of action. See Alexander v. Sandoval,
532 U. S. 275,
294297 (2001)
(Stevens, J., dissenting).